Nightmare Creatures
by Ava Nova
Summary: In all her life, she’d never run this fast. Based on a nightmare I had. Rated T just in case. ONESHOT!


**A/N: I had the weirdest dream last night – scared the crap out of me, but it's so unusual how much I tell a story out of what I see, hear and think while I'm unconscious (lol). So here's basically what happened, with a little added storytelling to make it a L4D story :p**

**This is an OC, I guess, but it's only a one shot. She doesn't know the names of the infected (Horde, Boomers, Hunters etc) so she's named them 'Nighmare Creatures' (hence the story title lol). Enjoy!**

In all her life, she'd never run this fast.

Her shoes were just too big, the back slipping off her heels and making in more difficult to run. Out in the wide space the sounds of the Nightmare Creatures grew louder, echoed around the trees and fields along the gravel road. She didn't want to risk removing her shoes to move faster – she could trip.

'There's nothing you can trust anymore,' she thought to herself, 'not even shoes.' Unstopping she flicked the shoes off her feet, feeling the sharp gravel digging into the soles of her feet. She could run a little faster now, but _they _could always catch her.

Her legs pushed, muscles taut, but she could feel in her that if only she could coordinate her legs she could move faster. Her muscles told her 'you can do better! Run, run!' but she couldn't seem to. She couldn't even bring herself to look back, to see how close they were to finding her.

A metal blockage, like you find on the side of a highway. Only as tall as a hurdle, but enough to tell her of the sharp drop she would have to take off the side of the road.

'I'm almost at the beach' she thought, pushing herself forward. Almost to freedom – hoping someone had left something for her to make a sea escape in.

She flew over the metal blocking her way, foot catching the metal with a painful clang. She didn't stop.

She would have laughed if she wasn't so out of breath. A sailing boat, ready to go, simply left lying on the beach. Small, but big enough for her to escape. Someone was planning to leave.

She didn't know a lot about boats, but she knew enough that she had to push it out and jump on.

Running up to it – suddenly glad she wasn't wearing shoes in the sand - she pushed, groaning out loud as the large vessel slowly floated onto the water. Jumping on she reached for a paddle, digging it into the sand and pushing her further out. Once she deemed herself a reasonable distance from the shore she looked back. The Nightmare Creatures, brain-dead as they were, drowned themselves in an attempt to run out and get her. She sat back down, sighing, glad to have finally escaped.

A day passed. Midday, or there about, there was a large ship in the middle of the ocean. She called, she screamed, but no one answered. Doing the best she could she tried to direct her boat to the side of the ship, climbing on.

"Empty." She said, marveling at the sound of her worn voice. A hand gently touched her throat, and swallowing she felt her throat to be rough, dry. She had been running for so long.

"Hello?" She yelled again. She winced at her croaky voice. "Water." She breathed, searching the apparently abandoned ship.

The door to the cabin was locked. Forcing all her weight against it – once, twice – it finally broke open.

And she wished she hadn't.

She doesn't remember when they got back to land, or how they did.

She doesn't remember anything.

She just sits on the shore, weeping, sand all over her. Seawater in her lungs, in her stomach, staining what was left of her clothes.

The captain of the ship, his family, they had done this to her. Locked themselves in their ship and slowly turned, trapped. And she had set them free.

Four shapes in the distance. Couldn't be like her – they were talking, walking, thinking. Guns in their hands.

She remembers guns.

Her sobs grow louder as they grow nearer. She doesn't want to hurt them, no…

But some part of her does.

She wants them to suffer like she did. She ran, and ran,and ran, and now she failed anyway…

But they were fighting. Maybe that's why they lived.

She ran away, and they faced the storm. So as they try to avoid here – the _witch, _they call her – she stands, fighting the storm. Screaming with her worn voice. Unbothered by her shoeless feet.

She would never run again.

**There was a lot more to the beginning of it – there were two running stages I think, but I can only remember the last one. Originally it was a port, and she jumped on a boat and all these zombies climbed out of the water, but technically they aren't dead, so they can't breathe underwater, can they? Ergh, it's confusing. Anyway, review?**


End file.
